Early last week, life looked bleak for the six children and two parents in the Duncan family of New Brunswick .

After being evicted last September from the Monument Park Hotel - a dismal New Brunswick residential hotel soon to be razed to make way for revitalization - the family had landed in a cramped room at a low-cost Route 1 hotel in New Brunswick .

But their money had run out. Bruce Duncan, 50, sent his young children off to school last Monday with no idea where the family would be spending the night.

Their hope was buoyed when Reggie Gardner, a case manager for the nonprofit New Jersey Association on Corrections, found charitable funds to pay for a few more days at the hotel . Gardner scheduled a hearing before the Middlesex County Board of Social Services to ask for emergency financial assistance.

Now their prospects have plunged once again. Friday afternoon Social Services shot down their request for aid.

Gardner and Duncan said the Duncans were denied because they had been evicted from their last apartment for nonpayment of rent - that their homelessness was their own fault.

"Our position is that's not true. The reason why they became homeless was because of being relocated," Gardner said. "This is really a sign of the times, and it's time to take a stand on the way these poor families are being treated by the county."

Gardner has appealed the decision to an administrative law judge.

Janet Tekely, an administrative supervisor at the Board of Social Services, said that confidentiality rules prohibited her from discussing Duncan's case specifically. But Tekely said state policy does bar the board from giving emergency help to families that lost their homes due to their own actions.

"It is true that people may be homeless and in need of shelter, but we may still have had to deny their application," Tekely said. "We will overturn our decision if a judge tells us to do so, and no hard feelings."

The Duncans started on the path to their current straits when the New Brunswick Development Corporation, known as Devco, evicted them and dozens of other families from the Monument Park Hotel after purchasing it last year.

Some of the families had lived there for years. But they did not enjoy the legal protections afforded to apartment tenants, or even rooming house residents, because local authorities took the legal stance that they were simply hotel guests.

With some financial help from Devco, the Duncans moved to an apartment in the Hampton Club, a troubled New Brunswick condominium complex. But they received an eviction notice days before Christmas for nonpayment of rent and for having too many family members in the unit.

Duncan said he moved in with three children, but was soon taking care of six after his ex-wife became unable to care for three of their children. He said the president of the condominium association complained about the number of kids in his unit, and soon afterward the owner of the unit started refusing to accept his rent.

Gardner said the family lacked the savvy to put their rent money into an escrow account.

Gardner said it is all too common for landlords to refuse rent from poor families whom they want to evict, then evict them for non-payment of rent. The board of social services, Gardner asserted, should have looked into whether that happened in Duncan's case.

Gardner expected the appeal to be scheduled for early this week.

Duncan was laid off from his job as a forklift operator over the holidays. Gardner, who frequently works with the poor, said Duncan is notable for his decent, responsible behavior toward the children under his care.

"I've been watching his attitude, he's not angry, he's not pushy, I watch how he treats his mate, his children under this pressure," Gardner said. "I want to take this guy to dinner."